Good luck Alex!!!!

Good luck and have a safe trip!

Fluids, a good, complete ratchet set, some wrenches and hand tools and that should be all you need. I like to keep a spare alternator (and power steering, if applicable) belt on hand as well. For the minimal cost, the grief and hassle it has saved me in the past is priceless.

Don't forget about us Northerners once you're enjoying the Cali sun!

Good luck Alex, looks like a fun scenic drive! I've always found DSM's to be pretty reliable on long drives, as long as you cruise them Hope you still got the cruise control hooked up in your car

They need to be beat on a little too, so they know who's boss

It'll be fine, mine has gone to Norwalk 3 times, Rhode Island, PEI and lots of other smaller trips, never an issue.

Good luck and have a safe trip

I agree with everyone else. DSM's are good for long drives. My car was off the road for 3 years, and torn apart. The first trip outside a 50km radius of my small city was to the shootout and back.
You will do fine!

Shame you didn't have that evo 5th

^^^ LOL.

Have a safe trip Alex.

Post up some nice scenic pics of your car on your journey

And drive safe!

Thank you all!!!



Yep cruise is in full working order and will be used heavily throughout the drive.



Check! All fluids are good with an exception of power steering. I lost some PS fluid after doing my PS cooler delete yesterday. I top it off with regular PS fluid instead of Transmission fluid like it said in the manual hopefully PS pump and PS system will survive this mix.

I did lots of packing over the last few days but I ran out of time to start my drive Sunday at 7AM so it is now rescheduled to Monday 7AM. As shown on pics, my spare list of parts also include stock ECU with injectors in case my 95 eprom caps decide to leak on the way. Also I hope you enjoy looking at my boxes.

Special thanks for Terry Sikora for helping me move heavy stuff and storing some of it in his magical attic.



Wrapped spare parts and stored inside my trunk with spare tire.







my 3 inch exhaust is on the right Currently I have stock installed. My spare 99 7bolt motor is in those two yellow bins on the back. All boxes are going into storage facility.

Looks like you're ready to rock and roll!!

Customs might get a little suspicious if they decide to look in th spare tire well

Yep, that evo3 5th gear would've been nice to have for this trip To my surprise, Evo X does 3500 at 120kmh just like stock GSX.



Yep, it will keep my heartbeat rate high

Interesting... I wonder why it's so damn high





Hahaha! That's true!

Is the final drive ratio higher on a Evo 3? Compared to a 2g.

No problem. I put the parts right next to where I keep my pure white unicorn

Have a safe trip Alex!

Evo 3 does 4000 at 120kmh according to Chris.
However, somehow the 5th gear does magic on DSMs by lowering rpms to 3000. Jeremy G had a good explanation about final drive ratios during our last meet so hopefully he will chime in here

So then yes. An evo has a higher final drive then a 2g. But a larger 5th gear ratio.

What he said

I just mentioned that we got away with using their diffs in our pumpkins because we could swap our ring gear over.

Alex! Good luck and all the best. Sorry I wasn't able to make it over for the doors. Long story short, had to deal with a few 'road blocks' during those few weeks. I doubt you still have them, but in the odd chance you do and come back for a visit, just message me

Will miss seeing your DSM around the block. Your spyder's wheels still look kick ass on my car

All the best. Keep in touch.

I'm gonna call the boarder and say your smuggling cocain up your bum..

haha jk.. Safe trip

Too late I got safely on the other side and even got vehicle importation docs.

The feeling of driving this thing is outstanding. I don't think I would attempted this trip if I was not driving my DSM.


I did 900k today boys....but there is problem which showed itself at around 500k....my head gasket slowly leaks pressure into cooling system I was at the dead stop looking for trailer to get her towed but burping the system bought me another 400k before air mixed up with coolant so bad that needle started to creep up again probably head is warped too so defiantly she needs a fresh rebuild

I changed my course south to Arizona to avoid driving through mountains. I will continue my trip tomorrow and will burp her everytime I stop for gas. Hopefully she will make it

Alex go to GM dealership and get the pellets they add to seal leaks in the cooling system, crush them up fine and dump them in the filler neck put on rad cap and drive, I have used them on a road trip to seal a blown head gasket and got another 3000k no problem, you have nothing to loose.

You should grab yourself a lower pressure rad cap. It is not by any means a proper fix, but it kept alot of Caravans and Shadows running till they got to where they were going.... it's hillbilly but it worked.

Subaru dealerships also have a "coolant system conditioner" which is a liquid stop leak to fix the leaky EJ25 head gaskets, a little better option if you don't want to risk clogging the heater core, not that you'll really need it in LA.

Thanks, this may be a solution for my problem but I really don't want to damage my expensive rad and heater core. I'll to look for a place tomorrow

Anything else I can do to battle this issue? Re-torquing head studs? I don't blow any smoke and compression is good. Looks like leak is only one way so those "stop leak" chemicals won't do me any good

because your head studs are torque to spec I would advise against re-torquing them.

Thanks Bryan. What if the head bolts are stretched ?

The Gm pellets wont hurt your rad or heater core, they work better than anything I have seen. unless your head bolts are used a couple of times and over torqued doubt if they are stretched, probably just a seeping head gasket.

Replace the rad cap first, a leaky one can show the same symptoms.

I wouldn't touch the head studs.... For the same reason that Bryan mentioned, and because I wouldn't f with something that is as critical as head studs on your journey.

But you know what the issue was? You brought all those spare parts and your car said "he doesn't believe in me?! Alright.... Fix this cracker! ;)". Lol.

Seriously, I hope you get it figured out. Not a comforting situation to be in. At least you're not mixing oil/coolant or leaking into any cylinders. So there's that!

Rob might be on to something here. I don't think you've mentioned any symptoms yet that a faulty rad cap couldn't cause. If it IS the headgasket, you'll want to replace your rad cap afterwards anyway, so you might as well pick one up. The fact that it comes out the overflow is a bit unsettling though.

I hope you get it sorted out. If you're unsure about the pellets, there's a product called Irontite that a lot of guys swear by (and a lot of guys have used to seal headgasket leaks).

He has had a HG issue for awhile now.

Well then just ignore me

But yeah.. Irontite. Good stuff.

Hope you get her sorted bud.

Leave your rad cap on at only the first "click" (the first detent). It will not build any pressure but it will still keep the coolant in the system. That is unless the head gasket leak is bad enough that the coolant all gets pushed into the overflow tank and it overfills and dumps on the road. I suspect though if that was going to happen, it would be happening already.

I think it is....

I'm not sure if I read past this or not but are you overheating while cruising or at idle?

Ryan L. had a good write up about our cooling system in the VFAQ. I'll try to find it, it's worth the read. He covers absolutely everything in our system.

http://www.ca.dsm.org/forums/ubbthreads.php?ubb=showflat&Number=336841#Post336841

^^^ +1 to this!! even as a refresher, it saved my butt earlier this season.

In hopes that it isnt your head thats warped and leaking pressure, have you checked your rad cap?

I didn't notice a tear in the seal on mine until I arrived at the escarpment cruise and was overheating.

Actually a leaky rad cap also had it pushing out the overflow pretty badly on two separate occasions. The HGs were solid.